Charges in Harvey Weinstein sex assault case in jeopardy after one accuser's story undermined by records: sources

Harvey Weinstein appears at his arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday, July 9th. The case against him for an alleged 2004 attack on an aspiring actress may be in jeopardy after Manhattan prosecutors uncovered discrepancies in her story. (Jefferson Siegel / New York Daily News)

The case against movie industry pariah Harvey Weinstein for an alleged 2004 attack on an aspiring actress may be in jeopardy after Manhattan prosecutors uncovered discrepancies in her story, the Daily News has learned.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office charged the Miramax founder with sex crimes relating to three women, including former actress Lucia Evans.

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Evans says she was in college and trying to break in to acting when Weinstein forced her to perform a sex act in his Tribeca office.

But at least one of the charges — the count of criminal sex act pertaining to Evans, 36 — may be falling apart after prosecutors disclosed to Weinstein’s side that information contained in a personal log she kept contradicts her story, sources said.

Prosecutors apparently made reference to the disclosure and a related probe in a Sept. 12 filing, although the specifics were sealed by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Burke.

Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi said the office was providing Weinstein’s team with “a disclosure and attached letter regarding Count Six.”

“The investigation into facts set forth in the disclosure are ongoing, and we will respond to defendant’s motion addressing count Six at the conclusion of that investigation,” Illuzzi wrote.

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A source told The News that Burke is weighing whether to unseal the records but that a ruling on the issue has been postponed.

According to TMZ, the NYPD and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office have launched a probe of a lead detective in the case the gossip website says failed to inform prosecutors he had interviewed a casting director — who claimed Evans told her she gave Weinstein oral sex in order to get an acting role.

But a source said the Internal Affairs Bureau does not have an active probe into the veteran investigator.

“The NYPD, working with its partner the New York District Attorney, is fully confident in the overall case it has pursued against Mr. Weinstein,” NYPD spokesman Phil Walzak said in a statement. “The evidence shows that the criminal case against him is strong. The NYPD will continue to assist the prosecution any way it can to ensure justice is achieved for these brave survivors.”

Weinstein’s attorney, Ben Brafman, declined to comment on the developments.

Evans went public to the New Yorker with her story in an October 2017 expose about the accused serial predator.

“He forced me to perform oral sex on him … I said, over and over, ‘I don’t want to do this, stop, don’t,’ ” she told the magazine.

“I tried to get away, but maybe I didn’t try hard enough. I didn’t want to kick him or fight him.”

In August, Weinstein’s defense team made public emails that revealed an ongoing affectionate relationship between Weinstein and another accuser cited in the indictment, whose name has never been revealed.

She alleges she was raped by him in March 2013 at a Doubletree Hotel on Lexington Ave. in Midtown.

The woman made efforts to “get together” with him about four months after she says she was forcibly attacked and continued flirty communications with Weinstein for years to follow, the potentially-damaging records show.

“I love you, always do. But I hate feeling like a booty call. :),” the woman wrote to Weinstein in 2017.

If the Evans charges go south, Weinstein still faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years behind bars if convicted of predatory sex assault, a pattern act count that requires at least two victims.